I've attempted to transfer the ownership twice now and have gotten no response from the current "owner". I've received one email from Google per ownership request (both with the exact same text from local-help@google.com):

"My name is Anna from the Google My Business support team and I’m confirming that we’ve just passed your access request for Red Brick Recruiting at https://maps.google.com?cid=-6238211816956144968 local page on Google My Business to the current owner of this page.

What to expect:

Please allow 7 full days for the current owner to evaluate your request and respond. If the current owner hasn’t responded to you directly within 7 days, you can reply to this email and we’ll take additional steps to follow up. Please know we won’t be able to help you with your request before the 7 days have passed."

Replying to Google by email, as suggested, doesn't work. It would be much appreciated if someone here could look into it.